The life and times of domestics

Two maids: One was a civil rights heroine. The other has accused former International Monetary Fund chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn of rape. They have more in common than you think.

August 21, 2011|By Anne K. Ream

Seventy years later, in our presumably more advanced time and place, another young, black woman has come forward with her account of sexual violence. And as the world watches and waits for New York City prosecutors to determine whether to pursue their criminal case against Strauss-Kahn, Nafissatou Diallo has been deemed anything but unimpeachable. That none of the "mistakes" Diallo acknowledges making negate the compelling physical and circumstantial evidence against Strauss-Kahn seems to be beside the point. Clearly not a "good victim" in the eyes of the public, or even the prosecution, Diallo has become the subject of scorn, suspicion and international scrutiny. Her story serves as a potent reminder to rape victims that if they choose to break their silence and report the violence that has been done to them, they may pay a steep and very public price for their real or perceived character flaws — particularly if such violence has been perpetrated by a powerful man.

"The past is never over. It isn't even past," wrote the late William Faulkner, a writer deeply aware of and complicit in the complexities and cruelties of the segregated South. And as vastly different as Parks and Diallo may be, each woman's story points to a seemingly timeless truth: cultural responses to sexual violence leaves its victims in the cruelest of double binds. They must choose between coming forward, and risking the possibility (or likelihood) of being disbelieved and shamed, or remaining silent, and forgoing justice or at least a public acknowledgment of what they have endured. This is a heartbreaking reality that seems to have never been lost on Rosa Parks. And it is safe to say that it is no longer lost on Nafissatou Diallo.

Anne Ream is a Chicago-based writer and the founder of The Voices and Faces Projectdocumentary initiative created to bring the stories of survivors of sexual violence and trafficking to the attention of the public.